Snacks

It’s interesting to go shopping with a Finn before a night out. They go to buy snacks. To me snacks mean cookies, chips, popcorn and other bits and bites. To a Finn apparently that includes various types of alcohol from straight up vodka to ciders.

It seems that Finns start drinking about 1-3 hours before going out and do not stop until they are flat on their faces either in bed or on the bathroom floor.

The snacks were explained to me. Alcohol is expensive in bars so Finns get as wasted as possible before they even leave the house. I’m sure this is done in Canada, but I kind of think it’s not pushed to this extreme since at least one of the people will be driving to their destination because the GTAs (Greater Toronto Area) transit system is just awful. So really, really awful it
just doesn’t even bare thinking of when compared to Finland’s.

My belief is that the drinking is a way of cracking the reserve most Finns cover themselves with. Finns tend to come across as very… sober most of the time, rarely cracking a smile or joke. It is generally very quiet. Helsinki reminds me of a U of T library! Even the trams and buses are hushed!

The times Finns get noisy are when they are drunk. It’s like they have a completely different personality. Drink frees them to express themselves in ways they feel they normally can’t.
Finns are also very socially conscious people. Always spying, I mean aware of what their neighbors are doing, buying, saying… So it takes quite a lot to crack that reserve.

Me, being from Canada, most come across as a little crazy, I don’t have that kind of reserve, though in Canada I come across to others as practical, quiet and reserved. Here I come across as unreserved, open, loud and a little crazy. Maybe they think I am drunk all the time?

Or maybe I am misreading their reactions to me and they see me as just a rather extroverted foreigner that happens to be Finn at the same time…